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“What is the difference between the divine and the worldly, the spiritual and the material? Is there a difference? Is there a difference between being spiritual and being in the world? There is a tendency for us to separate the two. That is a gross error. There is no difference between the spiritual and the material when we look at it from the viewpoint of truth…”

The mind is an instrument of separation. It is constantly separating us from our true nature by having us look outside of ourselves for the answer. We are whatever we are seeking from the world.

We also believe that the world is separate from us – separate from our true nature and somehow and hindrance to experience the Truth. As long as we believe this we make it so. You can find out from your own direct experience that the world is appearing in or on you and is no way separate from that which you are.

Right now, allow yourself to explore this question: “Can I actually find where the world ends and I begin or where I end and the world begins?” If you ponder this deeply you will experience directly the unity of all that is.

“When you find more joy within yourself than in anything else, then you’re really moving in the right direction. If you find any joy in life, you’re in the wrong direction. Enjoying anything is wrong. Seek joy within. Be joy. There’s nothing needed to enjoy if you are all-joyous. If we are enjoying anything, we are in duality. If I enjoy this, there’s “I” and “this.” If there’s God (Self) alone, there can’t be any “I” and “this.” The basic truth is that you are all joy. Enjoying something will impose an extreme limitation upon your natural state of all-joy. To enjoy something, you’re recognizing something other than you. So, I repeat, we should never enjoy anything. Seek joy only within, and then the natural state of infinite joy is discovered…”

Lester is not saying you should never enjoy anything. He is saying that in order to discover the true source of joy allow yourself bring joy to whatever you experience in life rather than want to or believe that you get joy from it.

Allow yourself to recognize that whatever appears to bring you joy is only giving you a very tiny sample of the infinite light and joy that you are. Would you rather have tiny samples or would you rather have the whole meal? If you would prefer the whole meal, then learn to discover the joy that is already and always right within you before, during and after every external experience.

Every time you let go you are uncovering the joy within you. That is why if feels so great to release.

You can also explore this by asking yourself this simple question whenever you appear to be getting joy from outside of yourself: “Is this the source of my joy or is this joy I am experiencing coming from within me?” Explore this in action as you go through your life and you will quickly discover the ever new joy that you are.

In Lester’s message he emphasized the importance of having a feeling of “givingness” towards everyone. The givingness he is speaking about comes from the direct realization that whenever we are giving we are giving only to ourselves. All apparent others are merely projections in or on the one Christ Consciousness or Field of Being that we are.

“Well, again, you do not give up your body. Your happiness gets more intense the more you move toward total freedom, until it reaches a point where you just can’t contain it anymore. Then you resolve it into a very beautiful peace that is never, ever again disturbed. And that peace is really far more delicious than the intense joy was. Then, when you choose to be active in the world, you’ll never, ever lose that background peace; you will feel it all the time. And you are free to do anything in the world: you can act angry or scared, be poor or rich. You can do anything you want, but you do not disappear.”

This is just a very small glimpse of what we have to look forward to as we let go and surrender to that truth we are. The more you let go the more this becomes your living experience.

Also, many of us hold ourselves back from fully letting go into that which we are because we are afraid that we will disappear. The exact opposite is true. What you are not, never was, so you do see through that. That which you are simply shines through washing away all your beliefs and suffering leaving its wake profound peace and equanimity. Instead of identifying with the little body/mind you identify with all that is and you know that you are even more than that!

So allow yourself to open to the truth of what you are that is already looking through those eyes yet needs no eyes to see – That which gives life to “your” life yet is beyond any particular form including the one that bears “your” name.

“Way back in the beginning, it started with a thought of lack. Then there was a desire to fulfill the lack. The desire caused more thought. The thought caused action. Since the action does not fulfill the desire, we increase the desire and action, keeping it going until we are apathetically spinning in an endless cycle, with satisfaction impossible. All our present thinking is initiated by something from the past. Our total feelings now are all from the thoughts and actions of the past. So, all thinking is now motivated by something that has already happened. Action and reaction go on and on that way, and we are caught. It’s almost impossible to have an original thought anymore, every thought being based on past thoughts.”– Lester Levenson, Happiness Is Free and It’s Easier Than You Think: Book 4 of 5, Session 6

The way to break this cycle is to let go of desires instead of only spending your time fulfilling them. Ultimately, they are not your desires anyway. When we blindly try to fulfill our desires we are responding to what may have been appropriate in the past as opposed to what we truly need or want now. Plus, whatever happiness that appears to come from satisfying our desires is at best fleeting and more often is only the preamble to greater suffering and an increase in the feeling of lack.

Every time we let go of wanting we quiet the mind and lesson our overall feeling of desiring. The less we desire the more we feel like we have and the more we are happy, content and at peace with whatever we have or do not have in this moment.

Does this mean that you should not fulfill your desires? Of course not, it simply means that you can discover by letting go that whatever you are looking for in fulfilling your desires is who or what you are already. You are already the happiness that you are seeking in every desire.

From time to time when you are wanting something that you appear to not have in this moment ask yourself:

What is it I am actually wanting right now?

Could I welcome that desire?

Could I let go of wanting it as best I can?

Could I allow myself to simply have or be that which I am looking to get from fulfilling that desire?

Ponder Lester’s words and experiment with this perspective and watch your inner experience change for the better.

Most of the time we let the mind take the forefront of our consciousness and ignore that which we truly are. We live life as though are thoughts and feeling are real and are who we are.

Develop the habit of watching the movements of the thoughts and feelings – of the mind. When you are truly watching the mind you are watching it from the realm of Freedom. To know if you are truly watching the mind, notice if you are trying to direct the show of your thoughts and feelings. If you are trying to direct the show or reacting to your reactions then you are not watching. The mind is merely engaging with itself.

Releasing itself can be a form of trying to direct the show to varying degrees. The more you are attached to the outcome of the release the more it keeps you in the realm of the mind. However, every time you let go the mind recedes a little or a lot depending on the depth of the release. The deeper the release the more you feel and experience that which is always behind the mind. So both watching and releasing support you in discovering the beauty and harmony that is behind the illusion we call the world – the projection of the mind.

Experiment with this quote from Lester and these suggestions from me and let us know what you discover.

This question is both rhetorical and an invitation to dive deeply into the truth of that which you are already now. Lester used to use questions like this to insight us to stop postponing our Ultimate Freedom. Notice too, how Lester is not referring to you as a person but you as the Infinite Beingness. You can use this question to both spur yourself on and as a self-inquiry question to notice that beauty and richness that you are. Ponder this question and notice what it opens up within you. – Hale Dwoskin